


Why Like This

by hyperlydian



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M, RNG 2012, a True Throwback, and chanyeol is not, baekhyun is awkward
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-03
Updated: 2012-09-03
Packaged: 2018-11-07 15:55:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11062260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyperlydian/pseuds/hyperlydian
Summary: In which Baekhyun is a classical pianist with social anxiety problems and Chanyeol has no major.





	Why Like This

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for itachibana13 for the Run and Gun fic exchange.
> 
> Jupiter-sized thank-you's to my bro Konnie for her support and being willing to have a mutual cry-fest when the deadline got too near. you're the best, truly. Hugs and stars in my eyes for Chang for being so enthusiastic about this story and making me want to finish it! You're too kind for words. More love and hugs and chocolate and the Korean pop idol of your choice to all my dear friends that listened to me bitch and moan about this story over the past few months, and a special, Yunho-in-a-cake thank you to Melissa, who inspired me to write this in the first place -- my dear little sister, all of this happened because I fell in love with a stranger at the library and you saw a story in it; Your friendship means so much to me and ily.
> 
> The title comes from a song by [Teebs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4-MHJvQYIk) and the two piano pieces I mention baekhyun working on are [Chopin’s Ballade No. 4, Op. 52 in F minor](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tmQSWuYwrI) and [ Rachmaninoff’s Prelude No. 5, Op. 23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2GKgFZ_ioQ).
> 
> Most of Baekhyun's character was taken from my own experiences at music school, so I hope you enjoy, and after such a long author's note, I think I should probably say, "on with the show!"

“Um. Baekhyun. What are you doing.”  
  
Baekhyun looked at Jongin shiftily from behind the fort of books he had carefully constructed in front of himself on the table about five minutes earlier.  
  
“I’m studying,” he said seriously.  
  
Jongin nodded and tapped the end of his pencil on his textbook thoughtfully. After a few more minutes of watching Baekhyun shifting shiftily in his chair and creeping creepily around the edges of the stacks of books that blocked him from the rest of the library like the world’s worst spy, he asked, “What are you studying then? You don’t even have a book open.”  
  
Baekhyun snorted loudly, almost blowing his own cover before ducking down behind the books again.  
  
“Don’t be stupid. I’m not studying for _school_ ,” he hissed, as though it were the most outlandish idea in the world. “I’m a music student. This is the first time I’ve seen the inside of the library since tours our freshman year.”  
  
Jongin looked down mournfully at his accounting homework and almost missed the way Baekhyun leaned forward through a gap between the towers, breathing, “I’m studying _him_.”  
  
“What.”  
  
“Come here.” Baekhyun waved him over and Jongin, intrigued, scooted next to him and crouched to peer between the stacks.  
  
“ _Him?_ ” Jongin nearly yelped, making half the library turn around and look at them, and Baekhyun dragged him down by the collar until he was practically sitting on the floor. Whispering, he tried again: “You’re spying on _‘Yeol the Troll_?”  
  
“Don’t call him that! It’s not his fault he’s tall.”  
  
“He’s not tall,” Jongin said ominously. “He towers.”  
  
“Well so does that Chinese exchange student but I don’t see you giving him a nickname.”  
  
“You mean Wu Fan the Man? I call him that because he’s awes — ”  
  
“A _mean_ nickname.”  
  
“Fine. You’re spying on _Park Chanyeol_?”  
  
The boy in question, Park Chanyeol, was completely oblivious to anything going on around him, let alone the two boys a few tables down whispering about him. He reached up, ruffling his own hair as he stared down hard at the papers in front of him, his huge glasses slipping down his nose.  
  
Jongin jumped as Baekhyun let out a girlish exclamation that sounded something like, “ _KYAAAAH!_ ” while pushing his fists into his cheeks adorably at the sight.  
  
“I’m going to be honest and say, as your friend, this is hard to watch.” He went back to sit in his chair, shaking his head. “Never thought I’d see the day where you fell for a classics major.”  
  
“I thought he did biomedical engineering?” Jongin shrugged and Baekhyun ignored him, trying to find a more comfortable position in his chair. “And I’m not spying. I’m just … waiting for the opportune moment to approach him. Someday, that moment will come. And I’ll be here.”  
  
Chanyeol pushed his glasses back up his nose, scrunching it up at the same time and Baekhyun bit his lip to stop himself from making another embarrassing sound.  
  
“Okay, here’s what you do,” Jongin started reasonably. “You go up to him, ask him something stupid like where the bathroom is or if you can borrow a book or something, and then say thanks and introduce yourself. Boom: you know each other.”  
  
Baekhyun looked at Jongin as though he were trying to explain nuclear physics. “It’s not that easy, Jongin.”  
  
Jongin sighed patronizingly, stuffing his notebook back inside his bag and standing up. “No, but it really is.”  
  
He walked over to a boy sitting in the corner of the room, a baby-faced thing chewing on the end of his pencil thoughtfully, with the swagger of someone who knew how good-looking they were and asked him easily, “Hey, could you tell me what time it is?”  
  
The boy’s eyes went even wider than before, probably taking in all of Jongin’s lean frame and solicitous eyes as they steadfastly ignored the clock right in front of him, hanging over the other boy’s head.  
  
“Um. I think it’s about 3:30?”  
  
“Awesome, thanks. By the way, I’m Jongin. I was about to go grab a coffee. Feel like joining me?”  
  
He smiled then, and Baekhyun could practically see the boy’s spine melt into jelly. “Sure. I just — “  
  
“Ugh,” Baekhyun muttered darkly from his perch, scowling at the two of them. “Lucky guess.”  
  
Jongin helped the boy — Kyungsoo, apparently — gather his stuff, causing Baekhyun’s eyes to roll again, and walked out of the library with him, gesturing wildly at Baekhyun to go talk to Chanyeol from behind Kyungsoo’s back.  
  
Once they were gone, he sighed and sat back in his chair, dejected.  
  
Stupid Jongin. Of course it wasn’t that easy. Jongin’s smiles just had the same effect as those deep-water fish stings where they made you feel all pleasant and mushy right before you went to your death, and that was the kind of thing that really shouldn’t be used on unsuspecting —  
  
“Excuse me,” a low voice jolted him out of his wallowing and Baekhyun jumped when he saw Chanyeol’s bispected face peering down at him.  
  
So maybe Jongin was kind of right: he towered a little.  
  
“Are you using these?”  
  
“Uh.” Baekhyun looked at the stacks of books in front of him on the table. “Yes. I am using all of these books. For. A thing. I mean, a project. Yes.”  
  
His eye caught the binding of _The Complete Works of William Shakespeare_ propped on top of a bound collection of _The Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology_ and _Plain English for Lawyers_ and felt himself flush.  
  
“Well, do you think I could borrow this one for a bit?” He held up a huge textbook entitled _Fundamentals of Physics_ and did a sort of half smile that only reached one of his eyes. “I only need it for a couple minutes. Accidentally left my copy at home.”  
  
Baekhyun was sure he could feel his heart in his throat and he sucked in a breath. “Yeah. I don’t need that one though. Take it.”  
  
“Great, thanks! I’m Chanyeol, by the way. I think I’ve seen you around before?”  
  
He held out his hand for Baekhyun to shake. This was the opportune moment he’d been waiting for!  
  
“I — “  
  
Whatever brilliant reply Baekhyun had been going to make was cut off by his phone going off, the dulcet tones of “Gee” sounding loudly in the quiet of the library. He lunged at his bag to turn it off and Chanyeol covered the lower part of his face with the book, so Baekhyun wasn’t sure if he was laughing or embarrassed to be seen talking to the boy whose phone had gone off in the library.  
  
“Right, well. I’d better get back.”  
  
Definitely embarrassed, Baekhyun decided, and he wilted in his chair as Chanyeol walked back to his seat, long legs taking him further and further out of his reach.  
  
That opportune moment he’d been looking for? He’d just missed it.  


 

  
  
  
In true artistic fashion, Baekhyun wallowed in his failure through the beginning of the next semester, still thinking about it sullenly as he waited for Jongin at their coffee shop on the last day before classes started again.  
  
“Hey,” Jongin said as he slid into the chair across from Baekhyun. “Sorry I’m late. I was at the library.”  
  
“The library.” Baekhyun narrowed his eyes to show how much he disliked the library, simply because it had been witness to his failure. “The semester hasn’t even started yet. What were you doing there?”  
  
“I had some work the finish up. I was too busy with stuff at home to do it there.”  
  
“Too busy having Skype sex with Kyungsoo is more like,” Baekhyun muttered sourly and Jongin’s head whipped around.  
  
“What did you say?”  
  
“I said ‘too busy sending texts to Kyungsoo is more like.’”  
  
Jongin nodded disbelievingly and then went to go order himself a drink. The boy that Jongin had picked up so smoothly in the library two months before had, to Baekhyun’s surprise, stuck around. As a general rule, the people Jongin dated lasted an average of two weeks, so the fact that Kyungsoo was even still speaking to him was mind-blowing. That he had actually heard Jongin refer to him as his _boyfriend_ once barely even computed.  
  
“So what classes do you have this semester?” Jongin slid back into his seat holding some sugary drink with a ridiculous twirl of whipped cream on the top.  
  
“Counterpoint and music history and um, lessons. Collaborative piano. The usual. Ugh,” he put his head down on the table after a moment, “I almost forgot. I have calculus tomorrow morning. Been putting it off this whole time.”  
  
“Suck it up. We all have to take it.”  
  
“8AM academic class.” He smacked his forehead mournfully on the surface of the table. “ _I am going to die_.”  
  
“Relax. Maybe Park Chanyeol will be in your class. He’s a math major or something, isn’t he?”  
  
“I thought he was in International Studies? And besides, I don’t want to be in a class with _him_ ,” Baekhyun said, looking at him as if he were insane. “What if he remembers what happened?”  
  
He had spent most of the end of last semester avoiding Park Chanyeol, who, now that he had seen Baekhyun completely embarrass himself, seemed to suddenly show up everywhere Baekhyun tried to go in some sort of very backwards type of stalking.  
  
Jongin sighed. “You’ve got to let that go. That was last _November_.”  
  
“I can’t let it go.” Baekhyun leaned in and hissed, “He’s brilliant and perfect and probably thinks I’m a complete moron who hoards books, and does projects involving cross-cultural psychology and — and physics, and then breaks the holy silence of the library by leaving my phone on!”  
  
Jongin looked around the coffee shop as if to make sure no one had heard. “I am embarrassed to know you.”  
  
Baekhyun sneered, “Yes, well I’m embarrassed being seen with you in that jacket but I’m not — “  
  
“Hey, sorry I’m late.” Kyungsoo rushed up to their table, smiling cheerfully. “My new roommate needed to be picked up from the airport and his plane was delayed.” Jongin shook his head, smiling and slipping his hand into Kyungsoo’s back pocket, and Baekhyun gagged exaggeratedly. “Hi Baekhyun! How was your vacation?”  
  
“You invited Kyungsoo on _our_ coffee date?” Baekhyun asked, sounding offended. They both stared at him. “Jongin, I thought we really had something special together.”  
  
Jongin snorted. “The last time we had something special together was that project we did for freshman English.”  
  
“Fine. I’ll just go talk to Junmyeon then. At least _he_ values my company.”  
  
“No, he just puts up with you because you live together and you’re the one that owns the N64.” He tugged Kyungsoo down for a kiss, missing the rude gesture Baekhyun threw at him before he walked out of the shop, pouting.  
  
He really had the most rubbish friends. It was bad enough that he couldn’t stand most of the other music students. But really, he thought, tugging his hood up over his head to keep his ears warm, Jongin was the worst kind of —  
  
Something large and very solid walked smack into him and sent him stumbling backwards, butt smacking down hard onto the pavement. Pain rocketed up his spine, making him cry out.  
  
“Ow! Motherfu — “  
  
“I am so sorry! I was in a hurry and didn’t see you!” Baekhyun’s litany of swear words caught in his throat as he followed the arm of the hand that had been offered to him to see the concerned face of Park Chanyeol. “Are you okay?”  
  
“I,” Baekhyun said, the throbbing pain in his tailbone suddenly disappearing at the endearing sight of Chanyeol’s eyes through his glasses as he crouched down to Baekhyun’s place on the ground. Practically lifting him off his feet while helping him up, Chanyeol attempted to dust Baekhyun off, chattering away all the while.  
  
“Sometimes I just don’t see people and trip over them and Wu Fan says sometimes he has the same problem so we think it’s because we’re so tall and some people just aren’t in our field of vision and — “ He seemed to catch Baekhyun’s slightly dazed look, because Chanyeol was standing really close to him and still had his hands oh Baekhyun’s shoulder under the pretense of trying to get snow off and even though he couldn’t quite identify what it was, Baekhyun had suddenly noticed that Chanyeol smelled _really good_. “Um, are you sure you’re okay?”  
  
“Oh. I’m. Um. I’m fine.” Baekhyun shook himself a little and reached to pick up his backpack from where it had landed earlier, attempting to smile and probably failing. “Well, I gotta — gotta go practice. Eight hours to do today and I haven’t even started!”  
  
“Practice what?” Chanyeol looked at him curiously through his glasses and Baekhyun swallowed hastily.  
  
“Piano.”  
  
“Ohhhhh, that’s so cool! Is that your major?” He plowed on before Baekhyun could do anything more than nod, “I play the drums sometimes but I haven’t got my set out this semester because Wu Fan — he’s my roommate — hates all the noise and — “  
  
“Your roommate is Wu Fan the Man?”  
  
Chanyeol stared at him and Baekhyun resisted the urge to slap his hand over his mouth. “… People actually call him that? Wow. I thought that was just a joke.”  
  
Baekhyun damned Jongin to hell and glanced at his naked wrist with wild eyes. “Look at the time!”  
  
The mental imagine he was having of Chanyeol playing drums was making him flustered and overheated and if he didn’t leave immediately, he would probably embarrass himself again and if that happened Baekhyun was positive he was going to dissolve into a puddle of pure mortification, because, oh my god, how was this his _life_. “Must be off!”  
  
“Oh, okay. Bye!” Baekhyun saw Chanyeol wave out of the corner of his eye and then call, “Wait, I never got your name!”  
  
Luckily, Baekhyun chose that exact time to duck around a corner of a building, knocking his head back against the brick and swearing.  
  
This whole having-a-crush-on-Park-Chanyeol thing was really not going well.  


 

  
  
  
It was lucky that Baekhyun’s roommate, Junmyeon, was a morning person. Normally he hated it and wished death on Junmyeon every time the older boy “accidentally” dropped a pan in the kitchen before the sun even had a chance to rise, but Baekhyun could honestly say that his roommate’s loud morning habits were the only reason he made it to his first 8AM math class of the semester on time.  
  
In one of his rare moments of mothering, Junmyeon had shoved a travel mug of coffee in his hand before he left, and so the probability that he might stay awake for class had been increased to a positive percentage.  
  
He took a seat five minutes before class was supposed to start, choosing one near the back that wasn't near other people and hopefully out of the teacher’s line of sight. Taking out his notebook, he rested the side of his face on it mournfully and closed his eyes. He was just managing to drift off into a light doze when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder.  
  
He groaned and snapped without moving, “What.”  
  
“Mind if I sit here?"  
  
“Does it look like I ca — “ He opened his eyes as the persons voice sank in, praying that he had heard wrong.  
  
Of course, he hadn’t.  
  
Park Chanyeol was grinning down at him, eyes crinkling behind his glasses and if Baekhyun hadn't been in the middle of a total crisis he would have noticed the adorable case of bed-head the taller boy was sporting.  
  
Chanyeol seemed to take his wide-eyed look as agreement and slid into the seat next him. "Byun Baekhyun, right?"  
  
Baekhyun slowly lifted his head, peeling his cheek off of the notebook. He squinted at Chanyeol. “How do you know my name?”  
  
Chanyeol shrugged, taking his textbook out. "I asked around."  
  
“What.”  
  
“Yeah, I asked if anyone knew a male piano major, short and kind of awkward.”  
  
"!!!" Baekhyun started and Chanyeol grinned at him again, pushing his glasses up his nose.  
  
“You’re pretty cute when you're sleepy, you know?"  
  
"I — “ Baekhyun attempted to collect himself. “I am a pianist! We’re not built for mornings. Musicians are creatures of the night!"  
  
The taller boy laughed as the teacher called the class to order saying, “Since it's the first day of class, we'll take it easy. Just a review of basic integrals to wake up your brains!"  
  
Pouting, Baekhyun clutched at his travel mug. "I feel victimized by being forced into taking this class, you know."  
  
Instead of offering him some comfort like Baekhyun though he should, Chanyeol snorted loudly into his textbook.  


 

  
  
  
It was an unspoken tradition that Baekhyun’s group of friends all got together on Wednesday nights to play video games together. Since the divorce five years before, Baekhyun’s parents, and now his step parents had developed the handy habit of buying him whatever he asked for, and so when he and Jongin joined forces, they had basically every game and gaming system they could get their hands on.  
  
Tonight though, was Kyungsoo’s first time with the whole rest of the group and so they were all taking it easy with some Super Smash Bros.  
  
Or at least everyone else was.  
  
Baekhyun, on the other hand, was ranting, slowly driving himself closer to an aneurism as he recounted the incident before math class that morning, controller forgotten and poor Kirby motionless on the screen as the fighting continued around him.  
  
"... And then," Baekhyun finished darkly, “he laughed at me."  
  
“You know," Jongin said, eyes still on Link as he jumped up the side of the building, "he really sounds too normal for you. I feel like I should warn him that you’re a freak or something."  
  
Baekhyun scowled. “He said I was short!"  
  
“You are short, Baekhyunnie.”  
  
"I'm the same height as Kyungsoo!”  
  
"I know, and Kyungie is short too. But he’s cute, so it’s okay.” Jongin paused in pulverizing Kyungsoo’s Pikachu onscreen and pinched his cheek while everyone else gagged.  
  
Sehun sighed and had Samus kick Kirby off the side of the building, using up Baekhyun’s second-to-last life.  
  
“Hey!” Baekhyun finally seemed to remember he was supposed to be playing and glared. Sehun smirked.  
  
“Here’s what it sounds like to me," Junmyeon said from his place on the back of the couch, where he was watching and eating all the popcorn. “He went out of his way to find out your name, sat next to you by choice, and actually tried to talk to you before noon — something even your _mother_ doesn’t even attempt. I'd say he probably likes you. So cut him a little slack, okay?"  
  
Baekhyun felt his eyes widen and he dropped the controller, saying shrilly, “ _You think he likes me?_ ”  
  
Junmyeon sighed, stuffing another handful of popcorn into his mouth and cheering as Sehun had Samus methodically punch the shit out of Kirby until he fell off the edge of the screen again.  
  
“Is it always like this?” Kyungsoo asked, sounding torn between amusement and concern.  
  
“Nah,” Jongin said absently as Baekhyun slowly slid from his chair onto the floor, eyes still wide and feeling like his whole world was breaking around him. “Sometimes I’m Mario instead.”  


 

  
  
  
So Park Chanyeol was in his math class.  
  
It really wasn’t a big deal.  
  
It was just — Chanyeol insisted on sitting next to him, saying that he didn’t know anyone else in the class, and he would earnestly take notes, even though it was practically the crack of dawn (as far as Baekhyun was concerned), and his handwriting was full of messy loops and scrawls, and sometimes he would make cute little doodles in the margins, and Baekhyun was really on the way to finding every little thing about Park Chanyeol attractive and it was kind of starting to drive him crazy.  
  
“Hey.”  
  
There was a nudge to Baekhyun’s ribs and he tore his eyes away from the spot on the board that he’d been staring at for the last five minutes in an effort not to ogle Chanyeol, who was looking particularly adorable that morning in a blue sweater that was rolled up to show his forearms.  
  
A coffee travel cup was pushed in front of him and Baekhyun blinked.  
  
“You seem a little out of it,” Chanyeol was smiling at him, all his teeth showing, and his glasses had slid down his nose a little. “I don’t know how you like your coffee, but maybe this’ll help?”  
  
Baekhyun blinked at him again. “Um. Thanks.”  
  
Picking up the cup cautiously, he took a sip and grimaced, sticking out his tongue. He couldn’t stand sugar in his coffee. In fact, it kind of made him want to throw up.  
  
“What’s wrong?”  
  
Chanyeol looked genuinely concerned and so Baekhyun hitched a smile back on his face. “Nothing!”  
  
But Chanyeol continued to look at him, eyes widening cutely behind his glasses — not cutely, Baekhyun reminded himself, there was a reason Chanyeol was called ‘Yeol the Troll’ and part of it was because he was kind of unintentionally creepy — and so he steeled himself and took another big drink from the coffee cup.  
  
Chanyeol seemed satisfied and went back to looking at the board, leaving Baekhyun with a mouth full of sugary coffee that his throat refused to swallow. He absolutely was not going to spit it out, not back into the cup or onto the table. The coffee puffed out his cheeks a little. He was a man, he could do this.  
  
Baekhyun pushed the coffee to the back of his throat and gulped it down in one swift movement, barely stiffing a quiet gag.  
  
He followed along in the textbook halfheartedly, fiddling absently with the cup so it looked like he might be drinking it until Chanyeol moved to take it from him. Their fingers brushed and Chanyeol’s eyes flicked to his with a strange smile that sent heat zinging straight to the pit of Baekhyun’s stomach. He felt a blush start working its way across his cheeks and luckily, the professor began announcing their assignment for next class. He hoped Chanyeol had looked away before he had a chance to see.  
  
He methodically put away his pen and textbook in his bag, watching Chanyeol out of the corner of his eye. The taller boy didn’t seem to notice and dragged a hand through his hair while frowning down at his planner. Baekhyun ignored the thought that that was possibly the cutest frown he had ever seen and stood up to pull on his coat and hat  
  
“Come on.” There was a tug on his sleeve and Baekhyun looked up at Chanyeol strangely, trying to figure out how he had gotten his things packed up so quickly. They walked out of the building together, morning cold biting at Baekhyun’s cheeks, and were at the bottom of the steps when Chanyeol said, "I figure you probably want something to wash down what I gave you." He grinned. “Not a big fan of sugar in your coffee?"  
  
Baekhyun’s shoulders sagged. “Was it that obvious?"  
  
“A bit." He smiled again, this time more widely, so that one of his eyes sqwunched behind his glasses and jerked his head to the side. “This way.”  
  
Baekhyun had to walk a little faster than normal to keep up with Chanyeol’s long strides as they walked together down the sidewalk, both their hands stuffed in their pockets until they reached the entrance of the cafe.  
  
Chanyeol held the door to the school coffee shop open and Baekhyun was reminded again just how much taller than him Chanyeol was, his arm holding the door a good foot about Baekhyun’s head.  
  
The cafe was fairly crowded with students getting their first cup of coffee before classes and as they walked up to the counter, Baekhyun caught sight of Jongin, Kyungsoo, Sehun and some boy he didn’t know across the cafe. Jongin’s jaw was practically on the floor it was hanging open so far and Baekhyun resisted the urge to make a face at him. Following his boyfriend’s look, Kyungsoo spotted Baekhyun and Chanyeol together and laughed, while Sehun simply smirked and whispered something into the other boy’s ear.  
  
“What do you want?" Chanyeol put his hand on Baekhyun’s arm to get his attention and he whipped his head around, nearly smacking into the other boy’s chest in the process. He steadied himself by clutching Chanyeol collar and their breathing seemed to stutter in unison.  
  
They just exhaled into each other’s airspace for a minute, and Baekhyun avoided looking at the dip in Chanyeol’s pretty lower lip like the plague. That smell he had noticed before, the really good one, was back and it was making his brain a little fuzzy.  
  
“Um.” He let go of Chanyeol’s jacket and took a step back. “Just plain coffee is fine. But you don't have to — “  
  
Chanyeol waved him off as he paid and there was an extremely unsubtle whistle from across the cafe.  
  
He was going to kill Jongin, and no one was ever going to find the body.  
  
“Hey are those your friends?” Chanyeol asked, looking over in the direction of the whistle as they waited to pick up their coffees. “We can go sit with them if you — ”  
  
“No!” Baekhyun said loudly and Chanyeol looked a little taken aback. He tried again. "I mean, um. Let’s not. They’re all idiots anyway."  
  
There was that little smile again, the one that seemed to say that Chanyeol thought he was a little baffling. “Right. Well, I — “ He looked at his watch he picked up their cups and made a face. “Ugh, I’ve got to run to my next class.”  
  
“Oh.”  
  
“No, I — look. My friend Yixing is having a party this weekend.” Fumbling with a pen, he scribbled something on the side of Baekhyun’s coffee cup. “You should come. Your friends can come too, if you want.”  
  
Chanyeol handed him the cup, and then his face split into a devastatingly wide smile, all teeth and gums, and Baekhyun bit back the stupid giggle that threatened to come out of his mouth because there was nothing about the situation that should make him act like a schoolgirl.  
  
Reaching up, Chanyeol’s eyes shifted to something above Baekhyun’s head. He flicked at the ball on the top his hat. “Hope I’ll see you there.”  
  
He watched Chanyeol go, raising his hand in a sort of halfhearted wave before stopping himself because he probably looked like an idiot.  
  
“Baekhyun! Over here!” Jongin was waving him over and he made his way to their table, frowning.  
  
“Grabbing each other in the cafe, eh?” Jongin waggled his eyebrows.  
  
“He’s too tall for you. I’m surprised he even noticed a garden gnome like you,” Sehun smirked at him and the boy next him smacked his arm.  
  
“Did he give you his number?” Kyungsoo asked, looking curious.  
  
Baekhyun looked at the phone number Chanyeol had written on his to-go cup. “He invited me to a party this weekend.”  
  
Jongin sat back, looking satisfied. “Told you he liked you.”  
  
“Jongin,” Kyungsoo frowned, “that was _Junmyeon_ who said that.”  
  
“Whatever. So are you going to go?”  
  
“Oh, you have to!” The boy next to Sehun clapped his hands excitedly as Sehun said, “If you do you have to take us, you know that right?”  
  
Baekhyun sat down in an empty chair and said, sounding a little shell-shocked, “He _flicked_ my _hat_.”  
  
Jongin rolled his eyes and pulled Kyungsoo in closer to his side. “Whatever, you know you loved it.”  
  


 

  
  
There was never any real question of whether Baekhyun was going to go to the party, not after Jongin knew about it anyway.  
  
The real question was exactly how much he was planning on drinking before he got there.  
  
“If you get there already wasted,” Jongin advised him while in the process of mixing himself another drink, “then you won’t feel nearly so self-conscious and hopefully end up banging him in the bathroom before midnight.”  
  
Sehun shot him a disgusted look from his spot on the couch with the boy from earlier that day, whose name was apparently Luhan, and muttered, “Raised by wolves, I swear.”  
  
Junmyeon took away the bottle that Jongin was holding and said, “Or, you could do the sensible thing, and have a drink or two to loosen your nerves and stop before you do something stupid.”  
  
“Bunch of squares.” Jongin shook his head and did a final mix to his drink. He held it out to Baekhyun. “Here. This should do it.”  
  
He stared down at the glass and then thought of how Chanyeol and how their fingers had brushed when they had reached for the same coffee cup, his incredibly wide smile, the way he seemed to tower over Baekhyun whenever they stood together. When he got to thinking about his own awful propensity to freeze up in social situations, he took a drink.  
  
“Holy _shit_ ,” Baekhyun gagged feeling a little bit like his throat was going to burn out of his body. “What the hell did you put in that, Jongin?”  
  
“Hopefully enough alcohol to stop you from doing that thing that you do when you get uncomfortable socially.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“You know, that thing.” Jongin made a face and looked at Junmyeon for confirmation. “Where he acts like the Queen Mother who’s just been asked an uncomfortable question about her sex life.”  
  
Baekhyun sputtered into his glass. “I do not!”  
  
Junmyeon shrugged a little. “He… kind of has a point.”  
  
“It’s really irritating,” Sehun chimed in.  
  
Baekhyun made one of his “!!!” noises and looked around, feeling very offended.  
  
“Just,” Jongin patted him on the shoulder in consolation. “Just drink more.”  


 

  
  
  
Baekhyun felt a little bit like he had his own entourage when he walked through the front door into the party with five people in tow.  
  
"I don't know who your boyfriend is, but this place is fucking nice!”  
  
Jongin was always excited by parties, energized by the crowds of people and the dancing and alcohol, but in this case, he happened to be right. The apartment was really nice; with an entryway leading to a large living room, another room that seemed to be a dance floor, and a hallway that looked like it lead to the kitchen. There were a fair amount of people and Baekhyun craned his neck, trying to spot Chanyeol in the crowd.  
  
“Chanyeol doesn’t live here. His friend Yixian or something does." Then Baekhyun sputtered, head swiveling around as he realized what Jongin had said. “And he's not my boyfriend!"  
  
“Took you long enough. I forgot what a lightweight you are."  
  
His friend was probably right. The edges of everything were a bit fuzzy and his limbs were doing that light thing that they always did when he was just on the edge of drunk. Baekhyun looked around again, trying to decide exactly how bad it was that he was this tipsy when he had only just gotten to the party.  
  
Junmyeon was already talking to a pretty girl over on one of the couches and Sehun and his (new?) friend Luhan had disappeared into the party practically the minute they’d walked in the door. Kyungsoo had Jongin’s arm around his shoulders but he was talking to a tall guy that Baekhyun vaguely recognized as the captain of the basketball team, and also apparently Chanyeol’s roommate, Wu Fan.  
  
Jongin, of course, was too busy laughing at Baekhyun to notice.  
  
“Why are you such an asshole?” Baekhyun pouted and Jongin clapped him on the shoulder encouragingly.  
  
“ _That_ is because I am being forced into pursuing a college degree that I hate by my tyrannical father — “  
  
"That's a bit dramatic," Baekhyun muttered, having met Jongin’s father before and while he had found him a bit stern and humorless, he was hardly tyrannical.  
  
Jongin went on as if he hadn’t heard, " — and so I compensate by being sarcastic, having lots of meaningless sex, and drinking like a fish."  
  
“How do you explain Kyungsoo then?"  
  
Jongin smirked his old playboy smirk, the one Baekhyun had been seeing at parties for years, right before he picked up some lucky, unsuspecting person and disappeared into the night. “Small lapse in judgment."  
  
“Hey,” Kyungsoo said into Jongin’s ear and the bad boy expression he had had on softened so quickly it might as well have been made of butter. Lapse in judgment Baekhyun’s ass. He was willing to bet Jongin liked Kyungsoo a great deal more than he would ever be willing to admit. “Wu Fan says there's a DJ in the other room. Wanna go dance?"  
  
Kyungsoo bit his lip and looked at his boyfriend imploringly, eyes wide, and Jongin shoved Baekhyun’s shoulder, saying, “Your lover boy’s just spotted you. Don’t come looking for me because I'm busy. And don’t forget to use protection!”  
  
Baekhyun sputtered wordlessly for a few seconds before he registered that Chanyeol was walking over, a wide smile on his face.  
  
He was dressed in some impossibly tight jeans that made his legs look even longer than Baekhyun remembered them being and his blue shirt set off the little bit of red in his hair. He wasn’t wearing his glasses and the shiny, rounded shape of his eyes made something flutter in Baekhyun’s stomach.  
  
“Hi.” Chanyeol seemed to look him up and down and Baekhyun felt suddenly extremely self-conscious in his T-shirt.  
  
“Um. Hi." He fiddled with the hem of his shirt a little and felt the tips of his ears burn. Still smiling, Chanyeol’s fingers curled around his wrist to stop him from fiddling and he tugged a little.  
  
“Come on.” He walked towards a group of three or four boys talking together and said, “This is my friend Yixing. And my roommate Wu Fan you've probably heard of, Minseok and Jongdae.” They all nodded as Chanyeol pointed them out. “Guys, this is Baekhyun.”  
  
“Ohhhh so he's the one — “ Jongdae began tactlessly and Yixing kicked him in the shin.  
  
“Thanks for coming, man," Yixing shook his hand and then turned to Chanyeol, asking, “Have you seen Luhan? He said he was coming with someone — “  
  
A light bulb went off inside Baekhyun’s head: Luhan was that boy Sehun had been bringing around. “Oh, him. He’s here with my friend Sehun. I think they went to go dance or something."  
  
Chanyeol’s friends all looked at him a little strangely and Baekhyun tried to correct himself, stuttering, “Or. I mean, I think it was him. Maybe. But uh."  
  
Chanyeol put a light hand on the small of his back. “That must be the programming major he’s been talking about lately. Baekhyun, did you want something to drink?"  
  
"I," he stared as Chanyeol steered him away, an annoyed look on his face.  
  
“Sorry about them. You're not the only one who has idiots for friends apparently." He frowned and surge of affection for Chanyeol’s stupid facial expressions rose in Baekhyun’s chest. He had never met someone with such an expressive face in his life.  
  
“No, it’s fine. I’m — ”  
  
Baekhyun stumbled over his words for a second, having a hard time figuring out how to explain that he wasn't so good with people because he’d spent most of his life in a practice room with a piano or being carted back and forth by his mother for music lessons and competitions. The friends he did have, like Jongin or Sehun, had known him for long enough that they'd learned to ignore most of his quirks, and while he really, _really_ liked Chanyeol, it was just that he didn’t quite know how to show it —  
  
But before he could get any of that out, Chanyeol was accosted by a large group of grad students he thought might be from Chanyeol’s department, whatever that was (economics? Political science? Pre-law? The fact that he _still_ didn’t know was beginning to verge on ridiculous) and on an intensely uncomfortable impulse, Baekhyun slipped away towards the kitchen, hoping there was a balcony in the back where he would be allowed to smoke.  
  
It was cold out, making him glad he hadn’t had a chance to take off his coat and as he slipped quietly out the door, he was grateful that everyone else seemed to be staying inside because of the chill. Watching his breath mingle with the air, Baekhyun slipped a cigarette out of the pack in his pocket and lit it, leaning back against the railing and sighing.  
  
It was stupid of him to have come.  
  
He had never really been good with large groups of people and Chanyeol was too — too — too something. It made him so uncomfortable he could practically feel his skin crawl.  
  
Taking another drag, he tried to distract himself by going over the most difficult part of the Chopin Ballade he was supposed to have ready by his next lesson. He was midway through, humming it to himself as best he could with the cigarette glowing between his fingers, when the door to the balcony opened.  
  
“Baekhyun?”  
  
He froze with the cigarette halfway to his mouth at the sound of Chanyeol’s voice.  
  
“I didn’t know you smoked.”  
  
The long list of things that they didn’t know about each other made Baekhyun’s eyes roll as he said, “I’m a classical pianist. Of course I smoke. That’s what we do.” He frowned and amended hastily, “Besides practice, of course.”  
  
“Must have missed that stereotype somewhere,” Chanyeol said, walking over to where Baekhyun was leaning up against the railing. “You okay?”  
  
“I,” Baekhyun started and then that _thing_ happened again, where all the thoughts he was having got tangled up on the way to his mouth, leaving him tongue-tied. Chanyeol studied the light above them intently, giving him a chance to pick his words. No one had ever done that for him before and it kind of sent Baekhyun for a loop. His mother certainly had never let him get in a word edgewise and his father was about as good at communicating as Baekhyun was, while his friends weren’t really in the habit of asking hard questions that required a lot of soul searching.  
  
He took a breath. “I’m not very good at parties.”  
  
Chanyeol nodded, still not looking at him, and Baekhyun was sort of glad.  
  
“Jongin is always taking me to them, but I usually leave when he starts doing his pick-up routine, so I don’t have to talk to too many new people. You — you’re someone that people like when they meet and you can talk to someone you don't know without making a fool of yourself. And you know that day in the library when you asked me for that book? I wasn’t even studying. I had come by to give something to Jongin and I stayed to watch you like some kind of creep."  
  
"I know."  
  
“What?” Baekhyun remembered how carefully he had constructed his fort of books under the disapproving watch of Jongin and frowned.  
  
"I saw you behind all those books.” Chanyeol laughed almost to himself, “I actually wasn't even taking physics last semester."  
  
“Then you — you came over on purpose?" Baekhyun was gob smacked. “ _Why?_ ”  
  
Then Chanyeol did one of his wide smiles, the one that made his eyes crinkle and always stunned Baekhyun a bit, and shrugged. “Because I didn't think you would ever come talk to me."  
  
He could feel his mouth hanging wide open, cigarette slowly turning to ash in his hand as Chanyeol went on, "I'd seen you once or twice before and always wanted to talk to you."  
  
Baekhyun suddenly remembered Jongin saying, _ask him something stupid like if you can borrow a book or something, and then introduce yourself_ , and resisted the urge to put his face in his hands because he hated himself and his friends and his stupid fucking life. Instead, he asked incredulously, “But _why_?”  
  
Chanyeol’s cheeks were a little pink but Baekhyun wasn't sure if that was from the cold or something else. He looked down at him, eyelashes low. “I thought you had really pretty eyes."  
  
Baekhyun felt his mouth “O” in surprise before he managed to finally school his face into its usual unimpressed expression. “Is that all?"  
  
Chanyeol was standing much closer now, causing Baekhyun to have to tip his head back to look him in the eye. Leaning down a little so Baekhyun could feel his warm breath on his face, Chanyeol shook his head. “You have really pretty lips too."  
  
And Baekhyun would have scoffed at the obvious line, but he was too caught up in the way Chanyeol’s lashes lowered the rest of the way as he leaned down and pressed their mouths together, soft and warm. Their noses bumped a little because of the angle until Chanyeol shifted slightly, tilting and catching Baekhyun’s bottom lip between his and then he became suddenly very aware that he was being _kissed_ by _Park Chanyeol_.  
  
Rather than kissing back, he went very still and Chanyeol pulled away, looking concerned. Baekhyun’s mind had gone kind of hollow with the realization and he let out an absent, “Oh.”  
  
_Kissing_.  
  
Chanyeol licked his lips and the color had left his cheeks. “Oh?”  
  
_Park Chanyeol_.  
  
Baekhyun was seventy-five percent sure that any moment now, he was going to have an apoplectic fit.  
  
There was something, it might have been irritation, rising in his chest as the events of the last few months came back to hit him on the back of the head with a heavy thunk.  
  
_Oh_.  
  
Flustered, Baekhyun poked Chanyeol in the chest and said accusingly, “You _like_ me!”  
  
He looked a little taken aback. “I — is that a problem?”  
  
Baekhyun floundered around for what to say, trying to decide between, _of course not are you an actual idiot_ and _I don’t even know what your major is_ , before giving up. Instead, he curled his fingers into Chanyeol’s open collar, rising up onto the balls of his feet — practically onto his toes with his head tipped all the way back — so that he could kiss him.  
  
It had been a long time since Baekhyun had kissed someone, years even, and so when the taller boy didn’t immediately respond, there was a part of him that thought wildly, _oh God, am I doing this right? Have I actually forgotten how to kiss someone?_  
  
But then Chanyeol made a small sound, it wasn’t even a moan or a whimper (it sounded a bit like relief actually), and the noise slid down somewhere behind his navel, coiling there hotly as he traced Baekhyun’s hairline, his jaw with his fingertips. Baekhyun felt himself go limp, neck straining to keep his lips in contact with Chanyeol’s and he huffed, a small cloud of mist puffing between their faces.  
  
“Too tall,” he mumbled against Chanyeol’s lips, breathing in the scent of his skin as it mixed with the cold night air. Baekhyun tugged at the shirt collar gripped tightly in his fingers. “Get down.”  
  
Smiling, Chanyeol ducked again, this time slipping his tongue into Baekhyun’s mouth and his hands under his jacket to pull him closer, their chests rubbing together.  
  
“Ha!” Baekhyun jumped at the exclamation from the porch door and turned to glare at Jongin. His friend called back inside obnoxiously, “Hey Sehun, come look at this! Our Baekhyunnie is making out with _‘Yeol the Troll!_ ”  
  
Baekhyun was halfway through giving his friend the finger, when Chanyeol began to laugh, pulling him in tightly for a hug. Baekhyun’s cheek ended up pressed into Chanyeol’s shoulder as the taller man buried his nose into his hair.  
  
“Baekhyunnie,” he thought he heard Chanyeol croon into his ear and felt something in his heart swell big enough to burst, making his chest ache.  
  
He frowned. “Don’t call me that.”  
  
“Shhh,” Chanyeol gripped his waist a little tighter and a delicious shiver ran up and down Baekhyun’s spine as Chanyeol’s breath brushed against his neck. “Don’t ruin it.”  
  
  


 

 

Things after the party weren’t really all that different. Well. They weren’t different in the way Baekhyun had expected anyway. He now had Chanyeol’s number in his phone (he refused to put hearts after his name on principle though, because Byun Baekhyun may have been a lot of things, but he was _not_ a _sap_ ), but when class came around that Monday, Chanyeol rushed into his seat just before the bell rang, barely sparing a sleepy Baekhyun a glance.

  
Baekhyun had about five minutes to be upset, glaring down at the buttons on his graphing calculator with as much irritation as he could manage so early in the morning, before a coffee cup was pushed across the table into his line of vision.  
  
A glance at Chanyeol out of the corner of his eye told Baekhyun that the other boy was taking notes studiously, glasses slipping slowly down his nose precariously. He picked up the travel cup suspiciously, sniffing it to check for any sugar. Then he saw that on the side was written “ _Baekhyunnie_ ♥” in a messy scrawl and smiled. Tearing a corner off his notes, he scribbled a quick thank you on the paper. Baekhyun stared at the note for a second, feeling as though he should add something. The ‘thank you’ looked very naked all by itself in Baekhyun’s admittedly bad handwriting and so, in a fit of inspiration, he added a little ;) at the end and slid it towards Chanyeol before he could change his mind.  
  
The other boy didn’t notice it at first, frantically trying to write down everything their professor wrote on the board in his illegible, math professor handwriting and Baekhyun felt the embarrassment begin to unfurl in his belly. A _winky face_? What had he been _thinking_?  
  
He hunkered down over his paper, hoping to hide himself from Chanyeol when he saw the note and wishing it were possible for him to actually melt into his chair. Baekhyun was so immersed in his own humiliation that he barely noticed the slight rustle of paper as the note landed back in front of him.  
  
_Meet me after class?_  
  
Baekhyun flushed, thinking about Chanyeol sucking on his bottom lip, Chanyeol’s chest rubbing against his. Catching the other boy’s eye, Baekhyun nodded and couldn’t stop smiling for the whole rest of the class.  
  


 

  
  
  
And for a while, that’s all there was. Baekhyun didn’t mind it. Texting Chanyeol during the day and meeting up with him after class (whether it was to have coffee or to make out in one of the conveniently located alcoves down the hall) were nice things and they didn’t get in the way of his busy practice schedule or Chanyeol’s schoolwork.  
  
Honestly though, Baekhyun had almost expected Chanyeol to move on after a week or so. He was cheerful and likable and had a multitude of friends and Baekhyun still froze up in any social situation like a fucking iceberg and so every day he thought Chanyeol would decide that he had had enough with socially awkward concert pianists and move on to someone a bit more easygoing.  
  
Musicians, especially the classical ones, were really bad at relationships. At least, that’s what Baekhyun had observed over the years, having seen one messy breakup if he had seen a hundred, and he sometimes wondered if he should just save Chanyeol and himself the trouble and just stop doing… whatever it was that they were doing. But then Chanyeol would smile at him, or poke him when it looked like he was drifting off during math class and Baekhyun would think that even though he wasn’t perfect (and he would know, having spent half his life in a practice room trying to make himself so), maybe Chanyeol was and they could be together anyway.  
  
  


 

  
  
After a month, Chanyeol shyly asked Baekhyun over to watch a movie at his apartment.  
  
He had ignored Jongin’s helpful (read: extremely _un_ helpful) advice about the invitation as he put on his coat to head over.  
  
(“You know when a guy invites you over to watch a movie that means they want to make out.”  
  
“I’m so not even listening to you right now.”  
  
“Did he say what kind of movie it was? If they say it’s a funny movie, that means it’s porn.”  
  
Baekhyun had choked, tripping over the pile of shoes by the door, and Jongin had laughed at him.)  
  
Luckily, he and Chanyeol seemed to have the same taste in movies and so they both ended up pressed into the couch, Chanyeol’s arm around Baekhyun’s shoulders, as they watched an intense mystery thriller unfold onscreen. Chanyeol’s body was warm next to his, heat seeming to radiate from his chest, and Baekhyun felt his eyes begin to droop, the heavy practice schedule he’d been keeping lately finally starting to catch up to him. Burrowing into Chanyeol’s shoulder, he felt himself drift off to sleep.  
  


 

  
  
  
“Baekhyunnie,” someone whispered, shaking his shoulder.  
  
“Mfglwa?” His tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth in a way that meant he'd probably fallen asleep without brushing his teeth and he rubbed at his eyes, attempting to sit up. Fuzzily, he saw a toothbrush with toothpaste smeared across the bristles being held out to him. Above it was Chanyeol’s smiling face, glasses slipping down his nose as he leaned over the couch.  
  
“Brush,” he ordered, tugging Baekhyun up by his other hand when he took the toothbrush. “Don’t worry. It's new."  
  
“Did I miss the end of the movie?” Baekhyun asked around the toothpaste and plastic as he was lead into the bathroom, stumbling slightly as he tried to clear the cobwebs if sleep from his brain. "I didn't mean to fall asleep."  
  
“It’s fine. Everyone died anyway." He held out a cup of water to him and Baekhyun frowned, mouth full of toothpaste.  
  
After rinsing and spitting, he said, “Don’t ruin it for me!”  
  
Chanyeol grinned at him unrepentantly. "I didn't say how."  
  
Then he ducked into his bedroom, motioning for Baekhyun to follow him. Stepping through the doorway hesitantly, he blinked when a shirt was shoved at him.  
  
"I don't have any spare bottoms so I — I hope that's okay."  
  
He wasn’t sure if it was because he was still half asleep, but Baekhyun felt like he was missing something important. “Okay for what?”  
  
Chanyeol scratched the back of his neck and Baekhyun realized with a start that he was nervous, the small hitch in his voice giving him away.  
  
“It’s kind of late and I thought you might want to… stay over?”  
  
He looked at the clock blinking up at him from Chanyeol’s bedside table. It was definitely too late for him to walk home, and the bed, a full-sized mattress with a fluffy-looking blanket that probably smelled like Chanyeol, looked really comfortable.  
  
“Wu Fan’s out with his — with Zitao and he probably won’t even be back tonight.” He was talking kind of fast, and Baekhyun bit his lip, trying not to think about how cute it was. “And I promise I’ll buy you breakfast tomorrow!”  
  
Nodding slowly, Baekhyun took the shirt and Chanyeol let out a breath, the tension going out of his shoulders, as though he had been afraid Baekhyun would say no. “I’ll go brush my teeth and stuff while you change.”  
  
After he disappeared, Baekhyun slipped his shirt off, studying the bedroom. The desk on the far wall was covered with stacks of books and notes, Chanyeol’s computer sitting in the only clear space, and the wall and cork board above it were practically plastered with different colored post-its and diagrams. The area around the hamper in the corner was littered with pieces of clothing that had missed their target, and Baekhyun folded his shirt and pants carefully, setting them on the desk chair before going to stand awkwardly in front of the bed.  
  
“You okay?” He looked over his shoulder to see Chanyeol coming back into the room, face red and shiny from having just been washed.  
  
“Yeah I. Uh. I didn’t know which side you usually, um.” Baekhyun could feel the tips of his ears turning red, but luckily, Chanyeol didn’t seem to notice, flailing a hand at him as he went to stand in front of his closet.  
  
“Doesn’t matter.” Gingerly lifting the edge of the comforter, Baekhyun slipped underneath it, the soft surface of the mattress a nice relief from the kinks sleeping on the couch had created in his back. The sheets did smell like Chanyeol, a little like pine or maybe the shampoo he used, and he rolled onto his side, trying to breathe it in from the pillowcase without seeming creepy. Instead, his heart jumped into his throat as he caught sight of the naked skin of Chanyeol’s back and his legs bare underneath a pair of boxer shorts. He seemed taller from where Baekhyun was lying on the bed, calves hopelessly long and the line of his spine curving this way and that as he shoved things around in his closet. Baekhyun swallowed hard and quickly rolled onto his back as Chanyeol walked around to the other side of the bed and lay down, turning to face him.  
  
Baekhyun turned his head, meeting Chanyeol’s eyes. He had taken his glasses off, so he probably couldn’t see very clearly, but after a moment he pushed himself up, leaning over so he could see Baekhyun’s face better.  
  
“‘Night, Baekhyunnie,” he said in a low voice before leaning down to kiss him, lips warm and minty against his, and almost on instinct, Baekhyun curled his fingers around Chanyeol’s arm as he tried to move away. There was a pause (Baekhyun even might have held his breath a little), and then Chanyeol relaxed, resting his head on the edge of his own pillow, inches away from Baekhyun’s and shifting so that their legs brushed together.  
  
He still hadn’t moved his hand. Chanyeol’s skin was unbelievably warm under his fingers, and instead of letting go, Baekhyun just rubbed his head into the pillowcase, closing his eyes. “Goodnight.”  
  
  


 

  
  
He woke to a loud thump in the hallway, Chanyeol somehow having managed to sling half of his body on top of Baekhyun in his sleep, and a glance at the clock told him they’d only been asleep for about an hour. Baekhyun might have been more concerned about the noise if it hadn’t been accompanied by a loud moan of the name _Wu Fan_.  
  
At first, Baekhyun thought he had imagined it, Chanyeol draped across him and snoring barely audibly into his neck, but then he heard a door close and the sounds started coming from the room next door instead. That was the door that Chanyeol had pointed out as being Wu Fan’s and Baekhyun made a mental note to tell Chanyeol that the walls in his apartment were frightfully thin, because he could hear Wu Fan and whoever he was with hit the wall with a thump, the metal of their jeans dragging against the drywall. And then there were the moans. Having met Wu Fan a few times before, Baekhyun found it easy to tell which voice was his, low grunt filtering through the wall, while the other voice, definitely male, was raised into higher pitched whines  
  
“ _Duizhang_ ,” he heard the mystery voice keen.  
  
Chanyeol shifted on his chest, one hand moving to curl more tightly around Baekhyun’s hip, and Baekhyun wondered how on earth the other boy could be sleeping through this. Maybe, he thought, beginning to feel slightly panicked, Chanyeol heard Wu Fan having sex all the time. Maybe _Chanyeol_ had sex all the time and Wu Fan had to listen to it and it was some kind of weird roommate trade-off thing that they did of sex listening and oh my god, Chanyeol probably wanted to have sex with _him_ and what if that was why he had asked Baekhyun to stay over?  
  
Baekhyun could feel his heart starting to pound, skin suddenly too tight and itchy, and he suddenly felt suffocated by Chanyeol’s weight, the naked skin of his shoulders too close and immediate in the darkness of the bedroom.  
  
The sounds from the other room were starting to get louder, accompanied by the creaking of a bed, and Baekhyun cringed, body tensing in an effort to make himself seem as small as possible.  
  
“Wu Fan _ge_ ,” moaned the mystery voice through the wall and Baekhyun jumped a little when there came the sharp sound of flesh being slapped. The other voice moaned again, sounding ragged, “More — please — “  
  
There was another slap and a cry of, “God, _daddy_ , harder — “ and Baekhyun had decided he absolutely had to leave that second. He would explain somehow to Chanyeol tomorrow — though if the other boy had only been trying to get into his pants…  
  
The thought was more anxiety-inducing than it probably should have been for a twenty-two-year-old male who was good friends with someone like Jongin, but the idea of Chanyeol’s hands anywhere near the inside of his pants was twice as terrifying as it was arousing, and while Baekhyun was definitely _attracted_ to Chanyeol, he was so inexperienced that it was embarrassing. There was possibly nothing Baekhyun dreaded more than being embarrassed.  
  
In an attempt to escape, Baekhyun began to try and wiggle out from under Chanyeol. It was an almost impossible task, the other boy wound around him like an octopus, and when he’d finally managed to free an arm, the world suddenly flipped as Chanyeol rolled over, pulling Baekhyun with him.  
  
“Oof!” he said, having ended up sprawled across Chanyeol’s chest and he tensed when the other boy’s eyes fluttered open at the sound. Of course, Baekhyun thought disconsolately, _now_ he decides to wake up.  
  
“Mmm, Baekhyunnie,” he mumbled, voice thick with sleep and eyes foggy. The loud sound of a headboard hitting a wall started up in the other room, and Chanyeol turned his ear towards it, scoffing unimpressedly. Leaning his head down, he pressed a soft kiss to the skin just in front of Baekhyun’s ear and then snuggled back into his pillow, smiling happily. One of Chanyeol’s hands had moved to Baekhyun’s neck, thumb brushing little absent circles at the base of his spinal column. With his ear pressed against Chanyeol’s chest like this, Baekhyun could hear his heartbeat thrumming away, skin warm and soft against his cheek.  
  
Either the sounds from the next room had finished or Baekhyun had become engrossed with the rhythm of Chanyeol’s pulse, trying to fit it to the tempo of some music that he had played to help him remember it, but soon, he was drifting back to sleep, any anxiety from before already forgotten.

 

  
  
  
  
The next morning, Baekhyun sat on the edge of Chanyeol’s bed for almost ten minutes trying to decide if he should wake the other boy or not before he left. Chanyeol slept carelessly, limbs thrown every-which-way and his mouth slightly open, and it shouldn’t have been endearing, but it was.  
  
Finally, he reached out a hand and poked Chanyeol’s shoulder, bare skin hot under his fingertip. Chanyeol snorted a little, eyelids fluttering before he focused on Baekhyun blearily. “Are you leaving?”  
  
Baekhyun fiddled with a fold in the comforter. “I have to go practice while the building is empty.”  
  
“But I promised you breakfast!” Chanyeol’s voice was rough with sleep and when Baekhyun pressed a palm to his chest to stop him from getting up, he could feel the vibrations through his ribcage.  
  
“It’s still really early. You don’t have to get up.”  
  
Chanyeol glanced at the digital clock on the bedside table, eyes widening as he saw what time it was. “You have to practice _now_? On a Saturday?”  
  
“The music building is open 24-hours and I have a lot to get done today.”  
  
He went to stand up but Chanyeol stopped him, fingers curling around his wrist. “Let me buy you breakfast anyway. Later? If we meet at the cafe around ten that still gives you enough time, right?”  
  
Baekhyun thought of the large pile of music waiting for him on his desk back at his apartment. If he left for breakfast, he’d have to go back later to finish preparing for his lesson on Monday.  
  
Chanyeol was looking at him hopefully, hair wild from sleep as he circled his thumb on the back of Baekhyun’s hand.  
  
Baekhyun bit his lip. “Okay.”  
  
A smile broke out over Chanyeol’s face, fingers tightening on Baekhyun’s wrist to pull him in for a kiss. Smacking Chanyeol’s shoulder to get away, Baekhyun pulled back, saying, “God, your morning breath is awful! What on earth lives in your mouth?”  
  
“Wouldn’t you like to find out?” Chanyeol waggled his eyebrows and Baekhyun huffed, pulling his wrist out of his grasp. Pouting, Chanyeol said, “Don’t forget: ten o’clock at the cafe.”  
  
“I won’t.” Baekhyun made his way over to the door, and when he turned back to look, Chanyeol had already fallen back asleep, arms sprawled out over his pillow like a jointless doll. He definitely wasn’t the prettiest sleeper, that was for sure, but Baekhyun thought he might like him anyway.  
  
  


 

  
  
Baekhyun’s fingers were still warm from playing by the time he walked into the cafe, only a few minutes late and he craned his neck in search of Chanyeol.  
  
“Hey,” Chanyeol’s voice came from behind, and Baekhyun turned to see the taller boy walking through the door. Spring had finally come outside, meaning that everyone had finally been able to put away their heavy coats, hats and scarves, and so Chanyeol was wearing a sweater instead. His hair looked like it was still damp from the shower and that smell, whatever smell it was that Baekhyun always noticed when he was around, wrapped around him like a glove.  
  
Chanyeol tugged at the bottom of Baekhyun’s jacket teasingly before looking over his head. His smile faltered slightly.  
  
“What?” Baekhyun asked, concerned.  
  
Chanyeol shook his head. “Nothing. My friends are just here is all.”  
  
Baekhyun’s head whipped around, eyes landing on the table of four boys, Luhan waving enthusiastically at them.  
  
“I don’t know how I forgot that we all decided to meet here this morning,” Chanyeol muttered, frowning. “If you want I can just — “  
  
“No, it’s fine. We can sit with them. I don’t mind.” Well, he kind of did, the typical anxiety beginning to simmer in his chest at the thought of interacting with almost strangers, but the sight of a frown on Chanyeol’s lips pushed him to agree.  
  
“If you’re sure…” Baekhyun nodded again, and Chanyeol pushed him in the direction of his friends, ignoring his protests and saying, “I’ll get the coffee and everything, don’t worry.”  
  
As he made his way over, Baekhyun thought that it wasn’t the coffee he was worried about. The first time he had met Chanyeol’s friends, back at Yixing’s party, had been a little awkward, and while he had seen them a couple of times between now and then, he definitely still felt a little uncomfortable around them. The exception was Luhan, who spent enough time with Sehun for Baekhyun to realize that the older boy probably liked just about everyone.  
  
“Hey guys,” he said, and then cleared his throat. “Is it okay if I…?”  
  
He gestured to the empty chair next to Zitao and the boy shrugged, smiling at him pleasantly. Baekhyun sat down, letting out a breath when Luhan immediately engaged him in conversation.  
  
Next to him, Zitao was shifting from side to side, eyes trained on the doors as though he were waiting for someone to come through them. Just a ways away from the cafe entrance, Chanyeol was waiting in line for the register and he caught Baekhyun’s eye, giving him a small wave and a thumbs up.  
  
Luhan was in the middle of asking him a question when the doors opened and Baekhyun felt Zitao go motionless beside him for a moment.  
  
“Duizhang!” Zitao called, waving at the person that had just come into the cafe, and the realization hit Baekhyun like a freight train.  
  
That voice. He recognized that voice.  
  
He watched Wu Fan walk over, frozen by the realization. Baekhyun suddenly recalled Chanyeol saying, _Wu Fan’s out with his — with Zitao_. If Wu Fan had been out with Zitao last night, and it had been Zitao’s voice that he had overheard through Chanyeol’s stupid paper-thin walls —  
  
Baekhyun could feel his face beginning to heat as everything came flooding back to him. The moans, the springs of the mattress squeaking, the rhythmic pounding of the headboard.  
  
Wu Fan smiled at him, nodding to everyone else around the table and slipping off his jacket.  
  
To Baekhyun’s horror, the memories kept coming, the sound of skin being slapped and the other voice, Zitao’s voice, pleading around the word “daddy”. He felt himself being to panic at the thought of what Wu Fan would do if he ever found out that he had overheard. It wasn’t even his fault! The last thing Baekhyun wanted to know was that Zitao’s freaky bedroom name for Wu Fan was —  
  
“Mind switching seats?” Wu Fan said, pointing to another vacant chair on the other side of the table, next to Jongdae.  
  
Baekhyun sputtered slightly over the words, unable to stop his mind from running at a hundred miles an hour about the kinky sex life of Chanyeol’s roommate. “No, it’s all yours, dadd — _I mean Wu Fan_.”  
  
Out of the corner of his eye, Baekhyun saw Zitao’s jaw drop, Luhan’s eyes going wide across the table, and he shut his own eyes tight for a moment, wishing he had the ability to teleport himself somewhere else, anywhere but here because how could he have been _so stupid_.  
  
Wu Fan stared at him, mouth pulled tight and Baekhyun thought if he stayed here any longer, he might die on the spot. He fumbled for his phone, putting it up to his ear.  
  
“What? Junmyeon-hyung?” Baekhyun said urgently into the dead phone, feigning a response to “Junmyeon”. “Something bad happened? No, no, I’ll be right there!” He shoved the phone back into his pocket without even bothering to pretend to end the call and stood up. “Sorry, guys I have a — I have to go.”  
  
Clumsily maneuvering himself around the table and past a still scowling Wu Fan, he made to leave and heard Luhan say, sounding confused, “But your phone didn’t even ring…”  
  
On his way towards the door, Baekhyun ran into Chanyeol, who was walking back to the table with their drinks in his hands.  
  
“I have a thing,” Baekhyun stuttered, knowing that the embarrassment was still turning his cheeks red. “Sorry. I forgot until just now. I’ll see you — “  
  
He had already started walking again but Chanyeol stopped him by the arm. “Hey, you okay?”  
  
“Yeah, I just — “ He glanced back at the table, where Wu Fan was sitting down next to Zitao and Jongdae, Yixing and Minseok were laughing about something uproariously, “really need to go.”  
  
“Okay.” He didn’t sound convinced but bent down and brushed his lips against Baekhyun’s, sucking lightly on his lower lip before pulling back. “I’ll call you later.”  
  
“Yeah,” he breathed as Chanyeol pressed his coffee cup into his hand, fingers warm from the drink. “Um, next time I’ll treat you instead. Or something.”  
  
“I’ll hold you to that!” Chanyeol squeezed his free hand and walked off to go join his friends. Baekhyun _did not_ watch him walk away sadly, but he did wonder what Wu Fan would say if Chanyeol asked why he looked like he wanted to punch someone in the face.  
  
  


 

  
  
“So are you guys together or what?”  
  
Baekhyun scowled at Jongin as he flopped down next to him on the couch in he and Junmyeon’s apartment. “Don’t you have a dorm room to go back to?”  
  
“Yes but I like your couch better.” He stole a chip and crunched it loudly in Baekhyun’s ear. “So are you?”  
  
“I — I don’t know.” He had hardly seen Chanyeol in the past week, _not_ , Baekhyun told himself adamantly, because he was avoiding the other man, but because he’d been busy.  
  
“So you guys go out together and kiss and stuff and you’ve slept in his bed, but you’re not together.”  
  
Baekhyun fiddled with the chips bag, crinkling the edges viciously. “I can’t just ask him if he’s my boyfriend.”  
  
Jongin snatched the bag out of his hands, asking, “Have you ever dated _anyone_ before?”  
  
“Of course!” Baekhyun said, offended. “I had a girlfriend back in — “  
  
“If you’re talking about that thing with your piano teacher’s daughter, that doesn’t count.”  
  
He deflated slightly. “Oh. Then not technically.”  
  
“Well, I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually.” Jongin kicked his feet up on the table as the front door opened, Junmyeon stepping inside and closing it behind him, and there was a sudden pressure in Baekhyun’s head, as though his whole brain were going to implode.  
  
“Oh my god.” He sucked in a breath, remembering Zitao and Wu Fan’s faces after he had slipped up last weekend at the coffee shop and how Yixing, Minseok and Jongdae had laughed as he walked away. “I’m screwing this all up, aren’t I? His friends probably hate me, and I think I drooled on him that time I stayed over and oh my fucking god, I can’t even remember to do my laundry — I can’t do _this_.” Baekhyun knew his voice was beginning to verge on shrill but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. “I can’t be someone’s boyfriend!”  
  
“What’s happening?” Junmyeon asked, slipping off his shoes and stepping into the living room.  
  
“Baekhyun is freaking out about being Chanyeol’s boyfriend.”  
  
Baekhyun tried to take another breath, feeling a bit like he might pass out, and wondered if it was normal that he couldn’t quite feel his face.  
  
Stealing the bag of chips from Jongin, Junmyeon flopped down into the far chair. “You know, Chanyeol seems like a nice guy. You could just talk to him about it. And I’m sure his friends don’t hate you. Luhan likes you at least.”  
  
“Luhan likes everyone,” Jongin said unhelpfully, earning himself a kick in the shin from Junmyeon.  
  
“No, I — “ Baekhyun’s throat was closing up. He had to get out of this room right now or he was going to have a panic attack. “I need to go practice. I have a competition this summer to get ready for.”  
  
He got up, rushing to his room to grab is music, as Junmyeon snapped at Jongin, “Nice going, asshole.”  
  
“It was an honest question!”  
  
“You’re one to talk about relationships anyway,” Junmyeon was scolding as Baekhyun rushed over to the door to put on his shoes. “You and Kyungsoo have been awfully — “  
  
Baekhyun slammed the door behind him, clutching his music books to his chest and heading off towards the music building, trying to calm his furiously beating heart by breathing in the cold night air.  
  


 

  
  
  
Baekhyun knew from experience that right around hour number four was when the air of the practice room began to feel unbearably stuffy. Leaning back on the piano bench, be cracked his neck and then his fingers, glaring at a passage near the top of the page he had open. The spaces between his fingers were beginning to hurt from being stretched. His hands, even though he had nice long fingers, were not made to play Rachmaninoff.  
  
The Prelude he was playing suited his mood though, and so he let out a breath and started again, this time trying to bring out the center voice more.  
  
“Wow,” said a voice behind him the next time he stopped, and Baekhyun yelled in surprise and nearly fell off the piano bench, clutching his chest as he gasped for air. Chanyeol let out a laugh at his reaction, putting a hand on Baekhyun’s shoulder to steady him. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you. You just seemed very… concentrated and I didn’t want to interrupt.”  
  
“What are you even doing here?” Baekhyun asked, still trying to get his heart to slow down.  
  
“I went to see you at your apartment but Junmyeon said you’d come here.” He looked down at the concrete practice room floor almost shyly. “I’ve never been in the music building before, so I hope you’re not… mad, or anything.”  
  
“No, you just scared me is all.” The air in the room seemed even hotter now than before, two people breathing instead of one, and Baekhyun was suddenly very aware of how tall Chanyeol was now that he was looking up from his seat on the piano bench. He scooted over a bit. “Wanna sit down?”  
  
Chanyeol traced the spaces between each piano key curiously as he took a seat. “You sounded really good just now.”  
  
Dismissively shaking his head, Baekhyun said, “I’ve been working on this passage for ages and I can’t seem to get the voicing right and I just — my hands are a little small but I know my teacher won’t — “  
  
Chanyeol grabbed his hand as he flailed it around while he spoke. “I said it sounded good, not that I know anything about playing the piano. I did mean it, though.”  
  
“Oh.” He let the compliment sink in, something he didn’t allow to happen very often, and something fluttered in his chest. Chanyeol thought he sounded good. The thought made a smile tug at his lips.  
  
“Are we,” Chanyeol started, looking down at their hands. “Are we okay? I’ve hardly seen you this week and I was wondering if maybe I’d done something wrong.”  
  
The past few days Baekhyun had spent locked away in the practice room ignoring his cell phone, suddenly stood out clearly in his mind and he swallowed guiltily as Chanyeol went on. “Luhan told me what happened at the cafe last weekend.”  
  
“About that: I didn’t mean to — “  
  
“It’s fine. Everyone thought it was hilarious — well, not Wu Fan, but if he doesn’t want people talking about the sex he has, then maybe he should learn to keep it down.” He smiled at Baekhyun reassuringly. “His thing with Zitao is kind of an open secret. You weren’t saying anything everyone didn’t already know.” He thought for a moment, lacing their fingers together absently. “Actually I think Jongdae might even like you more now because of it. He loves to see Wu Fan uncomfortable.”  
  
Baekhyun felt half the tension drain out of his shoulders at Chanyeol’s words, the knowledge that his friends didn’t hate his guts more of a relief that he would admit.  
  
But —  
  
“I’m just…” he tried, picking his words carefully, “not sure about all of this.”  
  
“This?”  
  
“Um.” Baekhyun’s head felt jumbled, the way Chanyeol was softly massaging his sore palm distracting him from all of the reasons why he thought him being someone else’s boyfriend was a bad idea. “I’m just really busy with piano and stuff and I have a competition this summer to work towards, and you know sometimes I don’t do laundry for like a month because I get distracted with a recital or something, and I’m a terrible cook so Junmyeon and I are always getting take-away instead and I’m not pleasant before noo — “  
  
Chanyeol silenced him with a hand over his mouth. “Stop.”  
  
Baekhyun tried to speak against the palm of Chanyeol’s hand anyway, scowling.  
  
“You’re just going to keep trying to convince me that you’d make a bad boyfriend, and I’m not going to let you.” Baekhyun frowned even harder because he was right, damn it, but Chanyeol ignored him. “It’s fine if you don’t want to call yourself that right now, but I’m not going to let you try and talk me out of this. I’m busy too, with studying for the MCAT and everything, so that’s okay.  
  
“But I like you.”  
  
Baekhyun felt his own breath catch. Even though he had heard Chanyeol say that to him before, the fact that someone could like him — _him, Byun Baekhyun_ — still threw him for a loop. Chanyeol looked at him, eyes shiny and mouth soft and vulnerable. “I _really_ like you,” he said again, more quietly. “And I think that you like me too, and I want to try this, whatever it is.”  
  
After a few seconds, he took his hand away and Baekhyun sucked in a breath.  
  
“Is that…” Chanyeol fidgeted with his fingers, suddenly shy again after his confession, “Is that okay with you?”  
  
Chest suddenly heavy, Baekhyun almost whispered, “Yeah. That’s okay.”  
  
A smile started in Chanyeol’s eyes and worked its way down to his mouth and Baekhyun felt himself reciprocate.  
  
They were both quiet for a minute, their confession hanging in the air between them, before Chanyeol looked around the room curiously and said, “So this is where you spend all your time then? It’s not very… cheerful.”  
  
Baekhyun glanced at the white cinderblock walls and concrete floor, all harsh under the halogen light bulbs, and shrugged.  
  
The smile on Chanyeol’s face somehow changed from happy to something a bit more scheming and Baekhyun eyed him warily. Letting go of Baekhyun’s hand, he stood up, looking as though he were walking back towards the door. Baekhyun turned around on the bench.  
  
“Where are you going?” he asked, but Chanyeol just smiled at him again, eyes sparkling a little with amusement at some private joke. Baekhyun had just decided to become annoyed when Chanyeol ended up in front of him, sinking down to his knees on the concrete floor.  
  
“What are you doing?” Baekhyun hissed, alarmed. “You’re going to get your pants dirty!”  
  
Sparing his tight white pants a glance, Chanyeol said carelessly, “Collateral damage.” His hands made their way up Baekhyun’s thighs, fingers skimming the fabric of his own pants and making him shiver.  
  
“Stop,” he said weakly, as Chanyeol finally reached his zipper and Baekhyun realized exactly what he was doing. They couldn’t do this _here_ , in a school practice room!  
  
“I’m just going to give you something happy to think about when you’re stuck in here,” Chanyeol said matter-of-factly, pulling Baekhyun out of his pants and licking his lips. “Is that okay?”  
  
“Y-yeah.” He spread his legs a little to give Chanyeol better access and the boy between them smiled a little at the action.  
  
Baekhyun heard himself moan when the hot skin of his cock met the open air of the practice room and then Chanyeol licked at it experimentally, eyes trained on Baekhyun’s face for his reaction. He closed his mouth around the head, licking again, and Baekhyun reached out to steady himself with a hand on Chanyeol’s shoulder.  
  
When Chanyeol dropped his mouth down, taking more of Baekhyun into his mouth, he let his fingernails dig in, another sound leaving his mouth. Chanyeol hummed around Baekhyun’s cock with satisfaction, starting to lick at as much of him as he could reach and the elbow of Baekhyun’s other arm fell back to support him, landing on the keyboard and causing the piano to let out a loud cluster chord in retaliation.  
  
His moans were echoing around the room, mixing with Chanyeol’s breathing and the loud sucks that accompanied every bob of his head, and when Chanyeol brought another hand up to touch Baekhyun’s balls, he knew he was embarrassingly close. He couldn’t even find his voice to warn Chanyeol, his stomach muscles clenched, thighs quivering and fingers scrabbling at Chanyeol’s shoulder. Then Chanyeol went down as far as he could, sucking until his cheeks were hollow, and when he cradled Baekhyun’s balls in his hand and _pulled_ , he came, pleasure exploding in his belly and up his chest and behind his eyes. Sound dimmed for a second as Chanyeol continued to mouth at him for a few moments until he was finished.  
  
Wiping his mouth, Chanyeol sat back on his heels, smiling up at Baekhyun like he was the cat that had gotten the cream.  
  
That was a disgusting saying, Baekhyun thought absently, as he brought his fingers away from Chanyeol’s shoulder so that he could trace the red outline of Chanyeol’s mouth.  
  
“That was…” he tried, still feeling a little ungrounded in his afterglow.  
  
Chanyeol grabbed the hand Baekhyun had on his face, tangling their fingers and looking up at him fondly. “Now you know there’s something waiting for you when you’re finished practicing in here, okay?”  
  
Baekhyun thought the blow job was probably just a bonus to being able to have Chanyeol around, but he wasn’t about to tell him that. Instead, he said, “So you’re going to be studying a lot. Do you think I’ll need to give you the same reminder in the library?”  
  
Reaching up with his free hand to clasp Baekhyun’s neck and pull him down to his eye level for a kiss, he grinned. “I was kind of hoping you’d say that.”  
  
  


 

  
  
The best part, Baekhyun ended up deciding, about being with Chanyeol, whatever they were calling it, wasn’t the blow jobs or the late night cuddling, or watching their two groups of friends combine into one big one and stage huge COD tournaments together. It was having Chanyeol slide into the seat next to him at 8AM on Monday morning for their shared math class, the soft sound of a coffee travel cup gliding across the table reaching Baekhyun’s ears.  
  
“Plain coffee, just the way you like it,” Chanyeol whispered into his ear, sliding his fingers down Baekhyun’s wrist until they were holding hands under the table.  
  
Baekhyun smiled at him gratefully, thinking that the only thing this stupid early morning class had been good for was getting him to see Chanyeol more.  
  
Then the teacher called the class to order, saying loudly, “Okay everyone! Review for the final exam next week: Derivatives!”  
  
Baekhyun groaned, flopping his head down onto his notebook, as usual. Instead of comforting him, Chanyeol just laughed and flicked his ear until he sat up again.


End file.
